Protesters gathered at the state Capitol in Wisconsin on Saturday after a controversial bill which would strip public employees of their collective-bargaining rights was posted online by a state agency, despite an ongoing legal battle in the Wisconsin courts and a judge's temporary restraining order that prohibited its implementation.

Friday's action ignited a fresh wave of heated debate between Republicans and Democrats over whether it should have been published. A law's publication is the last step before it goes into effect.

Reuters reported: "Republican supporters of the measure said the action by the state's Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB), which published the bill electronically on Friday, was legal and meant the controversial anti-union measure was now in effect. 

"But Democrats insisted the temporary restraining order (TRO) on publication issued last week by a judge remained in effect and rendered Friday's publication by the LRB moot."

The question now is whether Friday's action means the law actually went into effect."It's my opinion it's published, it's on the legislative website, it's law," State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said. "It was clear to me after our discussions this morning, if it in fact it is posted and it says published and there's a specific date on it, it would be very hard to argue this was not law.""It's not implementation at all," Steve Miller, the Reference Bureau's director, said. "It's simply a matter of forwarding an official copy to the secretary of state." Miller disagreed with Fitzgerald and insisted the law wouldn't take into effect until Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette order the measure published in a newspaper.

The court order specifically bars La Follette from publishing the measure.

For weeks Republican Gov. Scott Walker's proposal has been the subject of controversy and massive demonstrations. At one point, all 14 of Wisconsin's Democratic state senators fled to Illinois, where they remained for three weeks in an effort to deny a legal quorum and prevent the bill from passing. The Republican state Senators ultimately used an obscure parliamentary measure in order to pass the vote without any Democrats present.

Walker signed the measure on March 11, effectively overturning a law that had stood in Wisconsin for 52 years.

In addition to limiting the collective-bargaining rights of public employees, the measure would also forbid unions from receiving pay increases beyond the rise in the Consumer Price Index without voter approval and would require union members to pay more into their pension and health care benefits. The measure exempts firefighters, law enforcement and other public safety workers. 

Ultimately, the whether the law stands will likely be decided by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.